The lessons listed below use Standard American' Bidding. If you live in the UK, Australia or New Zealand you will likely use ACOL bidding and should use these lessons.

Beginners Lessons

Learn how to play Bridge online. Like many Bridge websites we have text lessons on how to play Contract Bridge. These lessons are listed below, however what makes Bridgedoctor different from many other websites is that here you can also play Bridge against the computer.

Eg: Ace is the highest value card in each suit with the Two as the lowest value card

Honor Cards
Honor Cards are the top five cards in each suit eg: Ace, King, Queen, Jack and 10. These cards are also known as high cards and are the hold the most value and are the most powerful cards in the game in order of suit. Each of these Honour cards is assigned a value.

Ace = 4 points
King = 3 Points
Queen = 2 points
Jack = 1 point
10 = although an honour card it does not qualify for a high card point value

Dealing
At a Bridge Club on when playing online the cards are dealt by the computer. However if you are playing at home then the dealer first shuffles the cards and then starting to the left, the dealer deals all 52 cards, one at a time in a clockwise direction. The next deal would be to the left on completion of this current hand of play.

Bidding
Any bid that is stated must be higher than any previous bid in that game. Players are entitled to say “pass” or “no bid” if they wish
There are two key components to bidding:

1. Auction bid – Teams choose how many tricks they believe they will successfully secure on this hand. The team which says they will take the most tricks has just confirmed a contract. (minimum 7 tricks and maximum 13 tricks)

2. Playing the cards – Playing the game determines if the team that took the contract is going to take the bid number of tricks.

The prime purpose of bidding is to exchange information with your partner and to gain information about your opositions hand and tactically control the game.